Today's News

The Galax Middle School Choir recently entertained the city's school board with a selection of songs. At the board's February meeting, the choir lined up behind a row of shelves in the GHS library, where they performed two songs: "Hot Chocolate" and "Amani Utupe Na Ustawi," which means "Grant us peace, give us courage" in Swahili. Four members of the choir have made it into the all-district choir, while nine submissions had been accepted for the state middle school choir.

INDEPENDENCE — Superintendent Kevin Chalfant’s new ideas and goals for the next school year in Grayson County include completing a $60,000 renovation project to improve athletic facilities at the high school and increasing staff salaries by 3 percent.
Chalfant shared his ideas March 18 at a combined meeting of the Grayson Board of Supervisors and Grayson School Board to discuss the county’s 2013-14 education budget.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former Hillsville commercial dog breeder, convicted in 2008 of misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty and neglect in Carroll County, now faces federal penalties after an enforcement action by a U.S. Department of Agriculture official.
A November 2011 complaint filed by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) program accused Lanzie Carroll "Junior" Horton Jr. of doing business without the necessary dealer’s license as required under the federal Animal Welfare Act.

A Baywood man charged in a drug distribution investigation had several items seized when police raided his home — including his go-cart.
On March 22, members of the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office and the Twin County Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at the home of Randy Eugene Osborne at 3170 Old Baywood Road near Galax.

HILLSVILLE — There will be no revival for Fellowship Wesleyan Church. Instead, the facility will be sold after the pastor moves to New York.
After Alan Page came to Hillsville in 2009, he tried to get the word out that the church was still pursuing its mission.
Many didn’t even know the church continued to hold services. Despite erecting a new cross in front of church on Virginia Street, visible from U.S. 58, people still thought it had been shuttered.

Tisn’t the season
I would just like to remind the Town of Independence that Christmas is over. They still are flying the Christmas decorations up on Main Street. We are almost ready for Easter now. I know this happened again last year but please. The flags are really pretty and they really added to the town. But Christmas is now over so they need the spring flags up. Hopefully they will get that done.

FRIES — When Joan Hammond received a call saying she had won $1.5 million in a Las Vegas lottery, at first she was thrilled.
Then, when the caller gave her some suspicious directions to claim the prize, reality set in.
Hammond began investigating the “prize” and discovered she was the victim of a scam.
She and the Better Business Bureau are working to inform the public about the scam, which also uses the BBB’s name without permission.
Hammond shared her story so that “hopefully no one falls into their trap.”